March

Bless me Father, for I have sinned...it’s been nearly a month since my last blog entry. What have I been doing?

Well, spring arrived in Chengdu. The skies opened and we had nearly a full week of sunshine! Everyone thronged to the parks! I do like the way Chengdu people think. I should put forward a motion to have Dublin twinned with Chengdu.

Saint Paddy’s day came and went. What started of as a quiet night turned into quite a decent session. The Irish bar had a duo consisting of a Swede on guitar and an American, I think he was, on vocals. Yeah, they were quit entertaining. I asked them if I could lash out a few Irish tunes, since I was in fact an Irish person. I went up after they finished and belted out the few Irish songs I knew. The crowd seemed to love it, and the boss even sent up a few Guinness! We met a few characters that night, some tourists and an Irish guy who lives in Chengdu. A good old hooley was had by all.

Continuing the alcohol-related tales, but on a Chengdu note, one of our teachers, the venerable Hu Laoshi, brought us to the semi-countryside to have lunch in his relatives’ house. Little did we know the fun that lay in store. When we arrived, we found the courtyard of the house packed with card and mah-jong players.



We had a wander around the fields, which were yellow with rape seed flowers, before heading back for lunch.



They laid on a huge spread of food and encouraged us to drink our heads off! The “uncles” (any man of the same generation as your parents is referred to as “uncle” or “shushu” in China) were all mad for the drink.


I started on the Baijiu with them, wimping onto Beer after a few glasses of it. It’s strong stuff. If they strong booze in Ireland for that cheap, nobody would ever finish college! I have to say, these people were really friendly and fun-loving. The afternoon left a long-lasting positive impression of Sichuan people. Like the Irish, Chengdu people value enjoying life, taking it easy.

Something that has left a bitter taste in my mouth this month is the happenings in Tibet. My opinion is this: I am happy if the people there are happy. I don’t like to see violence as a means to get what you want. The news from there is too sketchy, and since there is no independent verification, I don’t know what’s really going on there. What has disgusted me is that people here have been spreading rumours of Tibetans stabbing people etc. and creating a climate of fear: "Oh, don’t go out at night- there are Tibetans around and it’s not safe", and so on. One friend of mine teaches in a primary school in Chengdu. These young kids were shown video of the riots in Lhasa. My friend overheard some young kids saying they want to kill Tibetans while their teachers stood by and said nothing. If China wants peace, surely it should encourage respect and tolerance and not incite hatred. That’s my 2 cents on this issue. Hope I am not blocked for it.